The Role That Wins Games - Beyond All Reason Air Guide 

Same, and don't even have time to play !

Its the rts ive dreamed of as a kid

But the community is small and toxic af.

​@@robotjesus555666TA 2

You forgot Pombing Runs. 😁

Arm also has a t1 gunship that actually deals damage. Can give you some rush option by opening air then get a couple out and sending them off. Most air players go bots first, so this speed means you only worry about aa. Also nice for getting early picks on mexes outside enemy bases.

"nice and high just in case the wind goes to shit". It's not about metal income but energy availability. Though of course you could scale it with the wind strength.

Totally agreed! I particularly struggle with issuing priority commands while building/assisting structures. For example: I've tried to queue up a bunch of things to build, then have my commander briefly interrupt his build order to assist the bot lab production (by holding space, then right-clicking the bot lab) but then he gets "stuck" assisting the bot lab and never builds the rest of the stuff so I wind up having to queue it all again (wasting precious time in the process). Would love a more in-depth explanation of how this works to help me wrap my brain around this concept.

@@jmarino715 oohooh how do we cancel last build action in queue? hahah, knowing this, having something like that would be nice Oooor you want to prioritize something new and then switch to your queued actions.

Static AA is stupidly powerful. Want to bomb someone's base, but they have a handful of t2 flaks? Better be ready to lose all your fighters so you don't lose all your bombers too quickly. I hate it so much.

Apparently BAR tried some fuel (energy tanks) mechanics very early in development and it all got scrapped. Landing pads used to refuel and landed planes used to not consume fuel (energy). It all got scrapped for a simpler system and the relics of the old system still aren’t fully removed.

60 BP versus Bot 80 BP or Vehicle 90 BP is not "absolutely terrible". Given their movement speed, they're comparable. If the crux of an air build is an early build-turrent and lots of turbines, your commander can handle that part just fine. This is why it is often justified to start with an Air Lab - it gives you more tactical flexibility. You can take distant mexes (such as islands on Supreme Strait), you can setup perimeter cameras on the frontline to help your team defend (cliff on All That Glitters), or quickly assist your frontline mate in building ground units and static defenses (anywhere really). Bots are only better in a vacuum.

@@EugeneParallax They also take dramatically longer to build and the lab is more expensive than bots. They are great once you already have an economy for flexibility alone... but by then you could just print 20 of the things anyway so that BP isn't the limiting factor anymore. It is quite short sighted to view the entirety of the early econ phase as a "vacuum." Economies in this game are exponential.

@@Terminarch Lab being more expensive is irrelevant, because after you make one, it will be difficult to run out of metal (only gunships take a whole lot). You will have to build one anyway, so again, it is irrelevant. Cons do take a bit to build, but starting economy won't allow you to make cons quickly anyway (you'll stall on energy when boosting), so the difference isn't that much. You just need to boost for longer. Once you got a few, their speed and permeation advantage will begin to compensate. I think its more short-sighted to view the game only in context of economy. "Vacuum" means in isolation without a concern of strategic opportunities. It's just a method of spamming wind turbines, and it might not even work on every map equally well. It's a typical approach for someone who disregards his teammates and strategic depth. Such players should really stick with playing eco and not air.

​@@EugeneParallax Completely agree. The argument against opening with air cons is mostly that they cost a fortune in energy in the early game. Some people argue it's because of bp, but I have a feeling in the early game the 60bp air con ends up spamming out about the same amount of t1 wind mills as compared to the frustrating 90bp vehicle con because of how long and wonky it takes to get anywhere and find a valid spot to build at. They also get the luxury of always being seconds away from something needing to be built while a land con could be a minute or more before they can do anything productive. Maybe it's not the perfectly optimal way of growing your eco early on, but getting out an extra early trans for a teammate or two, early Shurikens to stop leaks, getting an early scout off, or harass with t1 Armada gunships is nice. Lots of utility for the team in having 1 player open air factory even if it's to that player's own detriment in the long run.

Imo first and most important, use control groups.

Keep your fighter wall slightly behind your front. The front's made to be strong, so they don't need air overhead. Spread air out too when manually moving them to avoid splash. A good strat for dealing with t2 sams with massive range is to trickle in cheap t1 trash like a Shuriken or scout. Those can only bank like 5 missiles and take several seconds to produce a new one. Makes them almost irrelevant when you do end up attacking.

air cons is slow and enemy fighters can easily kill all of them with little effort

the build power of air cons is very low

It's only beneficial to build air cons if you use their maneuverability and speed and building the base at the beginning is kind of the worst example

it is very different, early surprise attacks, or later massive number attacks can work. AA is pretty effective, though in late game against massive numbers less so, and it is less expensive in late game to get a massive air force. Though I'm still a noob, there might more aspects I didn't think of :)

It's because of how low their hp is and the tendency for aa to deal splash damage while also having a very impressive range especially t2. Super tough to attack someone who only kind of tried to get static aa towers up. Just a couple t1 aa towers makes a whole region a no go until mid to mid late game.